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Finishing (not painted) Poplar

Hey, a question for you all:

I'm building a chest for my son and I'm going with poplar mostly and (probably) birch panel inlays. My question is, what should I use to finish the poplar? I was going to go with Tung Oil and Mineral Spirit (1:1), but have questioned whether I'd like to keep the lightness of the wood. I suppose I could go with a Shellac mix (3 parts clear with 1 part amber) followed by a poly. Any suggestions?

Why am I using poplar? Because I live in the south and apparently most of the lumbar yards don't even carry it. Lowe's and HD have it but too expensive. Lately, my favorite lumbar yard got in a crate and was selling it a $1 a foot......so long story short, I thought I'd give it a go since I don't see alot of it down here. Why the bir

I have been building a lot of things from poplar (tulip poplar/yellow poplar) for about 5 years now and rarely paint it. My standard finishing regimen with this wood is water-soluble dye for color, de-waxed shellac for a seal coat and then the clear finish du jour, usually a sprayed on water-borne finish, such as Target Coatings USL. I have also finished it with just shellac (no dye). By itself, poplar will be a light-brown in color with significant yellowing from any oil-based finish. (The greenish hear-wood will brown out with oxidation)

The is NOTHING wrong with using poplar...it's a wonderful wood to work with, economical to buy and can very easily mimic other closed-grain woods with a decent finishing regimen. It's definitely not a "paint-only" species, despite so much rhetoric around that in the world.

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I have been building a lot of things from poplar (tulip poplar/yellow poplar) for about 5 years now and rarely paint it. My standard finishing regimen with this wood is water-soluble dye for color, de-waxed shellac for a seal coat and then the clear finish du jour, usually a sprayed on water-borne finish, such as Target Coatings USL. I have also finished it with just shellac (no dye). By itself, poplar will be a light-brown in color with significant yellowing from any oil-based finish. (The greenish hear-wood will brown out with oxidation)

The is NOTHING wrong with using poplar...it's a wonderful wood to work with, economical to buy and can very easily mimic other closed-grain woods with a decent finishing regimen. It's definitely not a "paint-only" species, despite so much rhetoric around that in the world.

I have been building a lot of things from poplar (tulip poplar/yellow poplar) for about 5 years now and rarely paint it. My standard finishing regimen with this wood is water-soluble dye for color, de-waxed shellac for a seal coat and then the clear finish du jour, usually a sprayed on water-borne finish, such as Target Coatings USL. I have also finished it with just shellac (no dye). By itself, poplar will be a light-brown in color with significant yellowing from any oil-based finish. (The greenish hear-wood will brown out with oxidation)

The is NOTHING wrong with using poplar...it's a wonderful wood to work with, economical to buy and can very easily mimic other closed-grain woods with a decent finishing regimen. It's definitely not a "paint-only" species, despite so much rhetoric around that in the world.

Any recommendations about which color dye or combination of dyes to go with? I'm looking at Woodworkers Supply for dyes and have no idea which to go with. I'd probably get one golden oak color and one somewhat darker, just to try them I guess. Any suggestions? Here's the page I'm looking at ------